James Harrison Contemplating Retirement After Fine for Hit

James Harrison had better retire. If not, this is the worst case of crying I’ve ever witnessed from an NFL player, and maybe even a grown man in general. After being fined for a hit on Cleveland’s Mohamed Massaquoi on Sunday, Harrison says he’s contemplating retirement because he doesn’t know if he can play effectively under the rules the NFL currently has in place.

I guess contemplating retirement is the thing to do in Pittsburgh. Keep in mind Harrison is in the second year of a six-year, $51.75 million contract. In other words, the Steelers linebacker is claiming he’s willing to leave tens of millions on the table because the NFL will no longer allow him to hit receivers in a certain way. Here are some snippets from Harrison’s Tuesday night interview on Fox Sports Radio:

“I’m going to sit down and have a serious conversation with my coach tomorrow and see if I can actually play by NFL rules and still be effective,” Harrison told guest host Jody McDonald. “If not, I may have to give up playing football.”

“I really truly hope it’s something that can be done,” said Harrison, a three-time Pro Bowl selection who was named The Associated Press’ defensive player of the year in 2008. “But the way that things were being explained to me today and the reasoning for it, I don’t feel I can continue to play and be effective and, like I say, not have to worry about injuring someone else or risking injury to myself.”

Translation: Wahhhhhhhh, wahhhhhhh, wahhhhhh…

At least Brian Urlacher is just telling people how he feels about the rules rather than making a full production out of it. Mike Tomlin had to excuse Harrison from practice on Wednesday while he works to settle this dilemma.

Let this be a personal promise to all LBS readers: if James Harrison retires, I will write a post dedicated solely to how unfortunate it is that the new rules in the NFL forced a man away from a well-deserved contract and how admirable Harrison is for taking a stand and sticking to it. When he inevitably returns to practice with the Steelers, he’ll be admitting to the entire sports world that he’s one of the biggest drama queens to ever play the game of football.